Beginning from Aug. 21, the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces will take part in the 37-day drill of taking back islands occupied by enemy troops with the third Expeditionary Force of the U.S. Marines on Guam and Tinian, Japanese media outlets said. This is the first time that islands were chosen as the exercise sites.
The Japanese Defense Department had claimed that the drill would not take any particular country as the imaginary enemy. It is closely related with Japan's conception of establishing new East Asian security pattern based on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and its active response to the United States' strategy of returning to the Asia-Pacific region.
A few months ago, Japan and the United States had reached a new consensus on strengthening the military cooperation in the Western Pacific region during Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s visit to the United States. The drill has undoubtedly a realistic pertinence and symbolic meaning.
Japan had made it clear that the drill will promote the cooperation of "dynamic defense force."
The so-called "dynamic defense force" was proposed by Japan in the "National Defense Program Outline" in 2010, meaning Japan will pay special attention to mobility and rapid response capability of forces to prevent from the "terrorist attacks" and "external invasion." What is Japan’s intension to eagerly learn the distance projection and quick-reaction capability and carry out the "struggle for the island?" The Sankei Shimbun had quoted a defense official as saying, "The drill is a training of recapture against Chinese army's offensive action on the Diaoyu Islands."
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